I went to Las Vegas / CES with one purpose in mind. SideShow hardware devices. Once in Las Vegas, I bolted directly to the Microsoft Vista Sideshow Booth. The Microsoft floor space was huge (a good portion of the LVCC Central hall) and after a short time I was able to locate the SideShow goodies. Actually, the Vista Sideshow hardware devices were spread out in 3 areas, 2 out of 3 aread had hands on demos of the actual hardware. Dan Polivy, the lead SideShow developer from Microsoft was kind enough to give me a quick tour and demo of products featuring SideShow hardware support. This article will contain pictures from all the showcased devices, future postings will have in-depth explanations of individual hardware devices.

A rahter small but crowded table with SideShow remote controls, MP3 players and Picture Frames. The Microsoft Sideshow developers were gathered around this area answering questions and performing live demos.

The RicaVision Remote Control, reference design from Microsoft. This is one of the best designed remote controls with SideShow support. Everything feels right. One feature not pictured here -- this remote control has a pop-up dial-pad control (pops up from the bottom), in case users want to select a TV channel by entering numbers. This remote control features Bluetooth support.

One of the Microsoft guys wearing the Eleksen SideShow enabled bag. The bag is equipped with a 2.5" LCD and SideShow navigation buttons embedded in the fabric. This hardware device connects to the laptop via a USB device. I will probaby not expose my email headers in a public space -- It will be nice if Eleksen will include a fabric 'lid' over the LCD for data privacy and protection against scratches, etc.

The MSI MP3 player with native SideShow support. This device talks Sideshow with the PC/Laptop via a Bluetooth connection. It has a color QVGA (320x240) display and sports a dual core ARM-7 processor (one for SideShow _ housekeeping and one for audio playback). The MSI is running NVIDIA's 'preface' Sideshow hardware and microcode. The navigation is smooth and despite the ARM-7 processor seems to be able to move a bunch of pixels wihtout choking at all. This device has an excellent slim/slick design an it is one of the best SideShow enabled devices available so far.

A bunch of Vista Sideshow enabled devices from Rica Vision, Phillips and Interlink. The MSI player is visible on the top. All the remote controls look very nice, but the nicest remote control layout design, by far, is the Microsoft / RicaVision implementation.

Another shot from the second display/booth with more SideShow remote controls. Pictured in the center (silver) is the SMK SideShow enabled remote control with Bluetooth and IR control. I've seen this remote control used in conjunction with Lagotek's Home Automation system.

The Logitech G15 keyboard with a pop-up LCD and sideshow support. This keyboard has a monochrome STN LCD with a resolugtion of 160x43 pixels. The LCD has dimension of and it can display up to 3 lines of messages, mainly used for game updates but can also be used for realtime stock information, among other things.

This is one of the most interesting SideShow enabled hardware device I've spotted so far. This pair or stereo speakers from Logitech also sports a small LCD display (BTW, resolution / spec is same as the Logitech Keyboard but this LCD is negative with a orange backlight). Aside displaying 'what's playing now', which is a very useful feature, this unit can also display other interesting bits of data. This picture shows a RSS feed snapshot. Look, www.sideshowdevices.com is in the RSS feed! What a pleasant (unsolicited) surprise!

[more postings from the CES Microsoft Vista Sideshow booth to follow soon, stay tuned]

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